Methods for evaluation of the energy performance of structures, e.g., office buildings, homes, apartments, etc., are of significant importance because, without an understanding of a structure's performance, it is challenging to determine whether improvements will lead to significant benefits to the structure's owner or occupants.
Understanding a structure's thermal efficiency well after commissioning and in older structures is also challenging because the building materials deteriorate over time. For example, insulation and seals around windows of a building may deteriorate over time due to exposure to harsh conditions such as ultraviolet rays from the sun and other harsh weather conditions like rain, wind, snow, and ice. Aging and the aforementioned conditions cause the building materials to lose their effectiveness as insulators and barriers against moisture and air and thereby contribute to decreased energy efficiency of a building. However, determining how these factors affect the structure's thermal efficiency, in a cost-effective manner has proved elusive.
Methods and systems have been developed to evaluate the energy performance or thermal efficiency of structures, but these methods and systems require complicated, high technology systems; intense data intake and controls; and/or particular conditions in order to obtain adequate measurements. Because of these aforementioned characteristics, these systems are practically useless for existing structure owners and the contractors they may hire to understand/improve their structure's efficiency. Accordingly, there is a need in the art for a system and method which can provide useful baseline energy metrics from which a building occupant can compare their building against without the need for specialized equipment, extensive data collection, and/or non-standard conditions to conduct the data acquisition.